James Blake has asked to be taken off the producer credits for Kanye West’s new album Bully.
Ye’s 12th studio album, which he debuted via YouTube on Friday, includes production from a range of different artists. On the closing track, This One Here, Blake is credited alongside Ye, Don Toliver and Quentin Miller.
NME reports that Blake has requested his name be taken off the credits as he believes the “spirit” of his work has not been represented in the final record.
Responding to a fan on video platform Vault, Blake wrote, “The way I pitched his vocals and constructed the track from his freestyle is partially there, majorly peppered with other newer vocal takes etc, but the spirit of my actual production is mostly absent other than that.
“My original version is a completely different production in spirit,” he continued. “Happy for the fans, but I’ve asked to be taken off the producer credits for now as I don’t want to take credit for other people’s work and this version isn’t what I created with Ye.”
Blake went on to clarify: “It’s not personal! I just hit a point where I don’t want to be credited on music where I can’t affect the end result.”
Blake and Ye have a long history together, dating back 2014. The two worked on a joint project known as WAR in 2022, but no music from that period was ever officially released.
On Saturday, Ye also shared the video for the single Father, which features a verse from Travis Scott. The clip is directed by Ye’s wife, Bianca Censori, and features a church setting populated by aliens and knights, with an unexplained Michael Jackson sitting in the background.
